No Matter What the Cost
by darkness wasted
Summary: I HIGHLY recommend that you listen to "I WILL NOT DIE" while reading this story. Adds more feeling. Knuckles is in a blood battle. Will he live?


**No Matter What the Cost**

**I recommend you listen to "I Will Not Die" to get the real feel of the story. **

"Come on! Get up!"

The red and white echidna struggled so that now he was on his hands and knees. He was bleeding heavily and his breathing was labored. He looked up and a scar going through his eye made him look ferocious. He looked up at his attacker and growled. It was Mephiles. This demon hedgehog was in a random mood for a fight. Knuckles was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Knuckles staggered to his feet and trembled in the weight of the pain. It was in the middle of the night on Angel Island and they were fighting at the base of the Master Emerald shrine. He held up his fists and looked at Mephiles.

"Hehe. Shame that the last of the echidna kind is dying, eh?" laughed the crystallized hedgehog.

"Arragagaag!!" Knuckles charged with his fist held up high and ran head first towards the hedgehog. Mephiles smirked and powered up. He charged forward and slammed Knuckles into a cliff side. The echidna winced and fell to the ground. He staggered to get onto his hands and knees.

"Get up!" Mephiles shouted. It was an order and a mockery. Knuckles closed one eye and glared at Mephiles with the other. The echidna was bleeding heavily but he wasn't going to back down. It wasn't in his nature to back down. He was going to get this beast of his island at any cost.

"Araagagag!!" Knuckles charged himself at the monster and tackled Mephiles to the ground with all of his force. He slammed his fists against the creature until he was thrown off again but this time into one of the pillars that surrounded the shrine of the Master Emerald.

"You pathetic fool! Thinking you can harm me! Hahah!" the creature laughed. He powered up the dark energy within him and aimed the palm of his hand at Knuckles.

"Get off my island! Aragagagagh!!" Knuckles rebounded from the pillar and flew at an incredible speed at the creature. Mephiles gasped and was knocked away with enormous amounts of force. Knuckles collapsed onto one knee and his breathing became labored again. He looked at himself in a puddle that was near him. It was raining now and he saw his face. He winced at the new scar that's through his right eye and his hold left side was nothing more but blood splattered. He looked down at his gloves and they were also a dark mixture of black and red.

"Arragagaag!!!" Knuckles shouted and charged again towards the creature. He jumped into the air and slammed his fists down into the beast. Mephiles gasped and was again thrown but into a large tree. Knuckles fell to his knees in pain but he wasn't going to back down. He looked at the beast and growled. His eyes were now black instead of the purple.

"Mephiles!!"

The creature looked up and gasped in horror. The red and white echidna was charging yet again and this time with bloodlust easily visible in his eyes. The creature stood but was punched in the jaw by the treasure hunter. Knuckles was grabbed by the throat and then slammed to the ground by Mephiles. The rain water washed onto them and Knuckles' blood was draining into puddles around them. The ground was red with the crimson blood.

"You fool! No creature can defeat me!"

"I can! **I** **will**!" Knuckles choked the words and spun out of the creature's grasped. He jumped into the air and slammed into Mephiles. There was a loud bang and a large cloud of smoke. The afternoon was now turning into a bloody night. Knuckles was seriously in danger of dying due to blood lost but he wasn't going to give in.

Knuckles stood up and blood oozed from his wounds. The water from the sky splattered against his weakened body but he stood firm and looked at the creature that was smirking at back at him.

"Dying seems so easy now doesn't it?" the creature smirked.

Knuckles bared his pointed fangs and his eyes retained their now new black color. He held up his fists and Mephiles stood his ground in his own fight pose.

"**You will leave my island**!!" Knuckles charged and his speed increased. The rain and fog made him look as if he was a creature from another world. Mephiles gasped in horror again and was punched with full force in the stomach. Knuckles continued to throw heavy and solid punches into the creature's side, head, and abdomen.

Knuckles' breathing was labored again and be backed away. Mephiles fell to the ground. Not breathing, moving, nothing. The red and white echidna stared at the battered body with his blackened eyes. He kept the eye with the scar on it closed and the other on the bleeding dead body of Mephiles. The echidna backed away but he didn't not take his eyes or eye off of the creature.

He looked at the pool of blackened blood leaving the creature on the floor before him. Blood leaked away from Knuckles as well. It slid down his leg and onto the ground. The rain water splashing against him made the blood flow like water. He kept his fists clenched and his teeth bared.

He watched as the blood continued to leave Mephiles. He had no feelings what so ever now. He just had bloodlust. He felt victorious but other feelings like sympathy and remorse was no where near him. Sadness or pain was gone too. The echidna's eyes tightened into a nasty glare and his upper lip came over his pointed fangs.

"I. Will. Not. Give. In. Nor will I ever." The echidna hissed. He looked up at the moon and the black sky that was pelting him with rain. He stood his ground and continued to stare up at the moon.

.............**Thank you for reading and I hope you review. **


End file.
